Happy Birthday munchkin

 I don't start doing parties for the kids until they're about 6. Then they start to appreciate all the work that goes into them and can really enjoy it. So Holland got to go to Ellie's party this year but didn't have one of her own. I wanted her to feel special on her birthday so I put up some decorations and and got the presents on the table early. The kids were out of school on Friday as was Todd due to Nevada day so we got to go to the park to play and that night was our ward trunk or treat.

Love'n the bead head

She wanted a butterfly cake this year.

Because we were trunk or treating on her birthday we invited one of her cute friends from nursery and her family over for cake and ice cream on Saturday.

We're so lucky to have this cutie in our family. She has both of her brothers wrapped around her finger and loves it. 

Happy Birthday Holland!!!!

Unexpected hair cut

 This past weekend was moving weekend and General Conference weekend at our "new" house. AND we were lucky enough to have a visit from my brother Dan and his wife Jenni while they were in town. 

While we were all watching the second session on Sunday the kids were off playing and I of course was enjoying being able to sit and actually hear what was being said. Well as it was ending Holland came down stairs and my brother noticed chunks missing out of her pony tails. I didn't believe it when he said some thing then I looked for myself. HOLY COW there are CHUNKS missing from her ponytail!!!!!!

There were actually chunks missing from the other one as well but not as dramatic as the one side. What was I going to do? This wasn't a fix I could handle on my own, so I put the word out to my friends here in Vegas to see if they knew of anyone who cuts hair and lucky for me they came through. 

Here's the worst of it.

 

 Makes me sad, she had such long pretty hair, BUT it will grow back.

 Good thing she's so cute it makes it hard to be too mad at her. She did great all through her hair cut and sat perfectly still.

 Four kids and the fourth one is the one to take the scissors to their own hair. (Weiland cut the neighbor boys hair a few years ago, still sorry about that one Rachel)

She looks so grown up now with short hair. I'm just grateful she didn't cut too close to the scalp that it would be impossible to fix.

Easter Dresses

This post is mainly for the grandma's to see the girls in their Easter dresses. I didn't take any pictures this year of the festivities mostly because I didn't have any planned. We were suppose to be in Rexburg with my sisters where they had things planned. So I winged it. The Easter Bunny came while we were out playing on Saturday afternoon, he usually comes Saturday morning but wasn't prepared. We colored eggs Sunday afternoon before church and I was busy making sure Holland didn't walk off with the dye so no picture of that event that was over in like 10 min. They each had three eggs to color that's it. What the heck am I going to do with that many hard boiled eggs that no one will eat?

But they all looked very cute for church. Sorry the boys were already in the car and in there regular church clothes so no big Easter picture there. But these cute girls had to have a few pictures taken. It was really bright (as you can see by Ellie' squinting) and I had a hard time getting Holland to look directly at the camera. But there you have it. Easter at our house this year.

Girls birthday 2010

Birthday/Halloween week was a crazy one. I was in charge of Weiland's class Halloween party, in charge of decorating a hallway at school for the Spookfest carnival, had both the girls birthdays, and Halloween. But I survived and everything went really well. (oh and Todd was flying in that Friday as well)

Anyway first came the girls birthdays. Ellie had a small party on her birthday. She agreed that we could do a Halloween birthday since that's what mom had available. This was her first friend party and she had a great time.

That morning I let her open one present which was her Halloween costume from Grandma Sillito, she was a super cute witch and needed it to wear for her party. ~thank you Grandma.

Once everyone arrived we played a few games, one of which was pumpkin bowling where they rolled a pumpkin to knock over the ghosts.

After the games we headed up stairs where they decorated cupcakes. Let me just say I have never seen so much frosting on a cupcake in my life, so much so that it wouldn't stay up right.


I also made a few treats, like these monster cupcakes that didn't quite turn out. I was suppose to use dum dum suckers but couldn't find them in bulk so I used what I found and they ended up being too heavy and tipping over. next time I'll get it right.

Thanks to all the cute girls that made the party so much fun for Ellie.

Holland's Birthday was the next day and she was so excited for her turn to open presents. This year Grandma sent a trike just for her. The kids are always out riding bikes and Holland always had to borrow the neighbors. This came in pieces and yes I did assemble it all by myself.

She was so excited about the bike,

so excited she had to open the rest of her presents on the bike.

We were so excited to have Todd home for Halloween weekend, it made it so much more fun for everyone. And we got to have him around for our family birthday gathering that weekend.

We're so blessed to live by family to help us celebrate~ we love you all!!!

The girls had a wonderful birthday, thank you to both amazing grandparents for your love and generosity.

Holland VS the Mosquito

Poor girl, the mosquito won.
Turns out it was a spider not a mosquito. That really creaps me out!

What I find odd is that I noticed the bite yesterday morning and didn't think much of it then she wakes up today with her swollen eye, what's with the delayed reaction?

She must have inherited her mom's reaction to mosquito bites, mine used to become huge welts. Sorry sweet girl.

Snacker

This little girl is growing up so fast. She likes to be independent and get things done herself. She tries to put on pants (anyone's pants) all by herself but usually ends up with both of her legs in one leg of the pants. She is just like her brothers and sisters in that she is a snacker. And if she can find it herself she's even more pleased. Lately I've caught her walking around with a bag of croutons. I've been out side and she'll come wandering out carrying it, and the other morning I came into the kitchen to find her here. She hasn't shut the door for privacy yet so that's a good thing because I don't think she could get out if she did.

Yummy snack ? ! She thinks so.

Holland

This girl is just growing up so fast. So I thought I should document some of the things she is saying and doing now at 19mo.

Her favorite words are: Ellie, Wei, tinton, daddy, mine, kacker, out, let go. I know there are more but that's all that is coming to mind right now. She LOVES to play outside and just wander around. Our neighbors have this little play house in their backyard and she loves to be in their and play. She loves to swing on the big kids swings and play where ever the kids are. She's tried to get on Ellie's bike a number of times and gets frustrated when she can't reach.

One of my favorite things she does is come up behind me when I'm working at the counter in the kitchen and give me a big hug around the legs, burying her face in my legs. LOVE IT!!!

She is very independent and wants to do things herself but gets frustrated when she can't. She loves to sing Popcorn Popping and 3 Little Monkey's Jumping on the bed. And she gives great kisses.

So thankful she is part of our family.

Holland and our neighbor Tommy (they're nursery buddies)

getting started

So this little munchkin has done things just a little later than the rest of my kids. She was in no hurry to crawl and she hasn't been in any hurry to walk. She has been walking around furniture for a while but hasn't really started letting go until recently. Now she'll do a few steps before she decides she'd rather crawl. Her newest thing is walking with the stroller. She has one of those ride or push toys but she'd rather sit on that so it doesn't get pushed. We're slowly on our way to walking and really I'm ok with a little more time. (please excuse the layered out door look, it was really cold in the house since the furnace decided to quit) Thank you Kate for yet again letting me borrow your husband, I bet you'll be as glad as I am when I get my own back. : )

Christmas Treats

Yesterday I spent all day making my Christmas treats. Christmas wouldn't be the same for me if I didn't have these as part of the celebration. I chose to only make four of my favorites this year. I found Pandora Radio and put in a classic Christmas song and then enjoyed LOTS of fun Christmas music while I baked. Ellie wanted to be part of the fun so she grabbed her stool and jumped in to help smash the graham crackers and Oreos and help stir together the peanut butter bars. She was so cute cause as she was stirring she was singing along with the Christmas songs, I loved it!

here's my big helper decked out in her cute apron

The best part of helping, getting to lick the yummy stuff.
No worries I made sure that knife made it to the sink instead of back in a bowl.

My other big helper (helper used in the loosest of terms) She helped by emptying my Tupperware drawer.

And of course the yummy treats!

birthday girls

We celebrated two birthdays at our house yesterday. Ellie's birthday (the 27th) who turned 4 & Holland's birthday (the 28th) who turned 1. Luckily Ellie doens't mind sharing a party with her sister yet so we did the double whammy.

I made the girls a tutu, hair bow and stitched a their letter to a shirt, as well as ordered these cute leg warmers. (Baby legs has the cutest ever). Got to have that birthday outfit and of course had to coordinate with the party colors. : )

Cute miss Ellie

Sweetheart Holland

Ellie could hardly stand to wait to open her presents so as soon as everyone got there she tore right into them. Thank you to Grandma's and Grandpa's as well as my wonderful sisters for spoiling the girls. They loved it!

Holland didn't actually open any gifts. We gave her one and as soon as she got some paper off she was happy just to play with that. She was in heaven with all the wrapping on the floor.

After presents we headed for the cake. I also made the girls birthday crowns. Ellie couldn't wait to get hers on, I don't know why she looks so solemn, funny girl.

Holland's only lasted a second and I barely got the picture taken before it was off and on it's way to her mouth.

Holland LOVED the frosting, she never even got to the cake. She was one hyped little girl that night after all that sugar.

I did a lollipop theme for their party. I started planning this back in May or so. I had envisioned a few of Ellie's friends as well as cousins but ended up only having the family come. So I didn't get to do everything I'd planned but enough to still have some fun with it. I'd purchased the paper lanterns from Michael's dollar section during the summer. I used those for lollipops as well as candies that we hung. I had three more lollipops that didn't even get to make it to the party as well as some tissue pom poms. I didn't even get a banner made~oh well.

But here is what I did do. I think it turned out pretty cute.

Let's just say my morning didn't start out great. It took THREE attempts to get the cake to come out of the pan. SO frustrating!!

Finally it worked out. Two lollipops.

Had to do the cupcake toppers, and wrappers.

This is what the insides looked like. Exciting I know.

I made lollipop cookies, I finally got the hang of rolling them out by the second batch.

This was a last minute idea. I was also going to do dipped marshmallows but didn't get to it, oh well, next time. The popcorn balls were the favors to take home. They were lime, teal, and pink.

Happy birthday girls, we LOVE having you both in our family. It's been so fun watching you grow and do all those fun girly things. We love you both.